Easter Sunday

 

Joyeuses Pâques 2024

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🐣

Pegasus

 

Statue of a poet astride Pegasus on a hidden square in the Opera district.

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 Pegasus, winged master of air and earth, represents beauty, strength, speed, and artistic inspiration. 

Fondation Friday

 

 

The Louis Vuitton Foundation through trees.

Architect: Frank Gehry

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Current exhibition:

Mark Rothko (1903-1970)

Ends April 2, 2024

 

Fondation Louis Vuitton

 

 8 Avenue du Mahatma Gandhi 75116

 

Fish Friday

 

It's Le Vendredi saint, Holy Friday, a day for fish.

Above: smoked salmon tartine with a glass of white

 

Delikatessen Kaviari

60 rue François Miron 75004

Throwback Thursday

 

 

Overhead lights on many streets were left up long after the holidays.

 

Wake up Wednesday

 

A blanket of pink, from the top of the butte.

 

(click to enlarge)

 

Tree-lined Tuesday

 

Bare trees line a footpath in the Palais-Royal Gardens.

 

Medici Monday

Unknown to lovers Acis and Galatea the hideous Cyclops Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, hovers just above.

Medici Fountain

 Jardin du Luxembourg

 

My First Easter Egg

 photo: Cordon Bleu 

Still time

- My First Easter Egg -

Create chocolate Easter eggs w/your child / grandchild

in Paris

 Saturday March 30, 2024 - 2 1/2 hrs

Le Cordon Bleu

 

Floral Friday

 

Bright blossoms right on schedule for spring.

Above: inside the gardens of the Palais-Royal

 

Theater Thursday

Inside a favorite small film theater in Paris.

Studio 28

10 rue Tholozé  75018

 

 

Wall art Wednesday

 

Montmartre street art overlooks the city.

 

Espresso and Proust

 

 

A Paris cliché.

 

L'Hôtel

 

Irish author Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) rented a furnished apartment at this now elegant hotel when it was the Hôtel d'Alsace, until his death, famously saying, "I am dying beyond my means.”

 

 L'Hôtel

 13 rue des Beaux Arts 75006

 

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Happy Saint Patrick's Day 

 

Corner café

 

 

 

A café on Place du Tertre literally in a corner.

 

Fish Friday

 

A stop for lunch on the French Atlantic coast.

 Brittany: 3 hours (or less) from Paris

 

Rothko, in retrospect

 Exhibition:

Mark Rothko (1903-1970)

 

First retrospective in France since 1999.

 

  Fondation Louis Vuitton

- Last days -

Ends April 2, 2024

 

 

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I belong to a generation that was preoccupied with the human figure, it did not meet my needs. Whoever used it mutilated it. - Mark Rothko 1958

Below: an early work, untitled. Rothko, like many expressionists before him, was a figurative painter for more than 10 years.

 

 

Wine Wednesday

 

 

That magical moment between lifting glasses for a first toast and waiting for the food to arrive.

Time travel Tuesday

 A stroll through Paris' bustling covered passages is a journey back in time.

 

Sandwich Saturday

 

Ready-made sandwiches appear in many Paris boulangeries around lunchtime.

 

 

Foucault Friday

 

A Foucault Pendulum swings beneath the main rotunda at the Pantheon.

Throwback Thursday

 

A Christmas Eve feast, in Montmartre

Above: pit fire on the patio; granny's pink crystal (3 glasses per place setting - champagne, wine, digestif); foie gras; a fine old Sauternes - for starters

 

Wine Wednesday

 

Champagne, wine, beer and other refreshments set out for an evening screening at one of the many small arthouse cinémas that dot the Latin Quarter.

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Years ago, while living in Spain I’d treat myself to weekend movie marathons in those tucked-away arthouse theaters on Paris’ Left Bank back streets - unassuming small venues that championed obscure international indie films and emerging filmmakers.

The moment I'd arrive in Paris, my ritual began: straight to the nearest kiosk for the latest Pariscope or L'Officiel des Spectacles, those pocket-sized weekly bibles that listed every screening across the city. Over breakfast, pencil in hand, I’d scour the pages, plotting the perfect itinerary, circling titles and noting showtimes - what to see, in what order, at which cinemas - creating the optimal sequence without wasting a single reel.

These were films from everywhere - U.S., U.K., Germany, Japan, Italy, and beyond, and they had to be in their original languages, marked VO (version originale). I (mostly) went for French films and off-the-radar indies. In Barcelona, most mainstream films were dubbed into Spanish or burdened with clumsy subtitles that flattened nuance and stole focus. Paris delivered actors’ real voices, unadulterated, and as so many of the titles were English-language anyway, the French subtitles stayed discreetly at the bottom, never stealing the show. - BPJ

Below: some surviving cinémas

Latin Quarter / Quartier Latin:

Cinéma Le Champo

Cinéma Saint-André-des-Arts

Christine Cinéma Club

Le Reflet Médicis

La Filmothèque du Quartier Latin

Studio Galande

(besides a roster of independent films, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show” in VO w/performances every Friday and Saturday night. Bring a bottle of water and rice

Montmartre:

Studio 28

(must-see interior by Jean Cocteau w/bar / charming tea salon / courtyard area)

 

 

Bastard bakers

 

 

 

French Bastards are baking Paris by storm.

 

The French Bastards 

Boulangerie-Pâtisserie artisan

65 rue Jean-Baptiste Pigalle 75009

 

- 5 more locations -

 

Monument Monday

 

Inside the Pantheon atop Montagne Sainte-Geneviève in the Latin Quarter, an enormous mausoleum with tombs of Victor Hugo, Voltaire, Alexandre Dumas, Pierre and Marie Curie, Rousseau, Louis Braille, to name a few.